World Energy Engineers Meet to Share New Ideas

In October, power engineers from Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea met with their U.S. counterparts in Columbus, Ohio, for information sharing and power generation site visits, as part of ongoing efforts to address climate change and encourage clean development through the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP).

The weeklong conference, organized and hosted by American Electric Power (AEP), focused on methods to improve efficiency of coal-fired generation as well as methods to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and air pollutants.

The APP is a public-private initiative involving countries that account for about half of the world’s economy and energy use. It focuses on voluntary, practical measures to create new investment opportunities, build local capacity and remove barriers to the introduction of clean, more efficient technologies. The partnership was announced in July 2005 and held its inaugural meeting in Sydney, Australia, in January 2006.

The site visits and related activities began an implementation phase and a series of programs designed to implement cleaner, cost-effective energy technologies and practices among the partner nations. The APP is identifying policies and deploying technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote healthier air quality, advance sustained economic growth, and reduce poverty.

Jeffrey D. Jarrett, assistant secretary for Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, commented on the importance of the event.

“I suspect that, before too much time passes, the people who [attended] this event will begin delivering renewed proof of the truth behind the saying: Science informs but engineering changes the world,” he said.